The Rule of Benedict and Honey Nut Cheerios

We have a custom at our monastery in Clyde, MO to have a portion of the Rule of St. Benedict read after Lauds (morning prayer) by the prioress.   There are 73 chapters to the Rule and because it is a 6th century document, some of the chapters are pretty strange to our ears.   Sr. Pat has been reading chapter 59 - The offering of children by nobles or by the poor - the last couple of days.  

To give a little background - the dedication of children to God by their parents, the choosing of their professions and the selection of their marriage partners was a common practice for centuries and still is in some parts of our world.  The gifting of a child to a monastery, in particular, was believed to assure the salvation of the parents as well as the child.  If poor people had a lot of children and worried about taking care of them all, it was a way of giving them a better life.  Not until the Council of Trent (1545-1563) did the church itself define a legal profession age.  

St. Benedict in this chapter makes the parents swear that they will never personally or through an intermediary give the child anything or afford the child the opportunity to possess anything.  Or they may make a formal donation of the property that would have gone to their child to the monastery instead.  St. Benedict’s reasoning is thus: This ought to leave no way open for the child to entertain any expectations that could deceive and lead to ruin.

Having said all this...what does this have to do with anything TODAY?   Just so you know...we don’t take offerings of children to our monastery!  

Sr. Pat in her commentary on this chapter talked about the danger of ‘entitlement’, (which is in fact rather prevalent in our society today), using the image of Honey Nut Cheerios.   We have a few cereals to choose from on our breakfast table, mostly healthy stuff like All-Bran, Shredded Wheat, Bran Buds, Corn Flakes, Cheerios and Honey Nut Cheerios - which is our only sugary cereal.  Sometimes you go to breakfast expecting the Honey Nut Cheerios to be there, but it isn’t and you wonder why not?  Egad!...did somebody make the decision to no longer purchase it?!  Why wasn’t I consulted?!   Suddenly plain Cheerios aren’t good enough any more.   

This is a little and perhaps to some, a silly comparison, but just think about your own day...what do you get upset about because it’s not there?   And if you are discerning a call to religious life, do you have some expectations about what God should be doing for you at this moment?   Do you want a little more ‘sugar‘ in your life than you sometimes get?  Sr. Pat said the way to conquer the attitude of entitlement is to change it to the attitude of gratitude.   

You know what?...plain old Cheerios will be just fine for today.